International elections expert delivers Lesar Lecture “Reporting from the Ground Level in Haiti” An elections management specialist with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems presented the 2010 Hiram H. Lesar Distinguished Lecture.
Sophie Lagueny, the organization’s Chief
Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations. With Lagueny’s “long experience in working on electoral management issues in nearly 20 different assignments … she is imminently qualified to speak about the pursuit of the rule of law in Haiti,” Houdek said.
of Party, Haiti, served as the in-country technical adviser to the country’s Provisional Electoral Council on all issues relating to preparing, organizing Cindy Galway Buys, an associate professor of law and coordinating the electoral process. She spoke and director of the school‘s International Law about her role in advising the Haiti Provision Program, said Lagueny‘s presentation was timely, Electoral Council, and gave a first-hand account of and provided two perspectives. living in Haiti, both before and after the Lagueny was able to discuss some of Lagueny was able to devastating earthquake discuss some of the the issues and problems with Haiti’s which struck the island issues and problems republic in January. government and democracy; and also with Haiti’s government and democracy; and Lagueny’s experience “gave us a sense of what it was like to go also “gave us a sense of includes nearly 20 through the earthquake and how the what it was like to go years in a variety country is or is not recovering,” Buys said. through the earthquake of assignments in and how the country is locations including or is not recovering,” Buys said. Palestine, Chad, Northern Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium, Bangladesh, Angola, Mozambique, Buys notes that Haiti is the poorest country in the Cambodia and France. Her assignments have come western hemisphere and needs more assistance than through organizations including the European any other nation. Commission, The Organization for Security and The Lesar Distinguished Lecture provides an Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), United States
Barbara Lesar, Sophie Lagueny Lesar Lecturer and Interim Dean & Professor Frank Houdek
opportunity to bring speakers “who can share these unique perspectives,” she said.
United Nations Day In honor of United Nations Day (Oct. 24), the SIU School of Law, the United Nations Association (UNA) Southern Illinois Chapter, and the International Law Society co-sponsored a program entitled “The International Criminal Court and Other Models for International Justice.” The program began with a short clip from “The Reckoning: The Story of the International Criminal Court and Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo.” Speakers included: Professor Steve Shulman (Political Science ) on the United States and the International Criminal Court; Assistant Professor Lucian Dervan (Law) on Ad Hoc International Criminal Tribunals; Assistnat Professor Christopher Behan (Law) on Military Tribunals; and Associate Professor Cindy Buys (Law) on Truth and Reconciliation Commissions.
Former UN official discusses nation building William C. Potter, a principal architect in implementing the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the Bosnian War, spoke at the School of Law last October. Potter is the former head of the Rule of Law Department, Office of the United Nations High Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina. From August 2002 until January 2005, Potter supervised and managed more than 200 judges, lawyers and criminal investigators from more than 15 different countries. During his lecture, “Lessons in International Law,” Potter talked about his experiences in Bosnia and
Herzegovina regarding nation building, and applied the lessons he learned there to the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan. “The entire legal system was being redeveloped under his leadership,” Assistant Professor Lucian Dervan said. “As one of the highest ranking officials there for the U.N., he was instrumental in crafting policies directed toward moving the country forward.
Potter’s department drafted and enacted “most of the primary legal codes of the country, the complete restructuring of the court system, removing and re-selecting judicial and prosecutorial personnel
throughout the country and the restructuring of the police throughout the country.” “This lecture presented a very timely and unique view of nation building from an insider’s perspective,” Dervan said. “Applying lessons from these past conflicts is the key to properly understanding and addressing the continuing challenges the international community faces in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan.”
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